Around the world, there is a strong and growing imperative to decolonize curricula in higher education. Student and staff movements have questioned the dominance of Eurocentric and male authors in our syllabi (e.g. #LiberateMyDegree, #WomenAlsoKnowStuff, Alternative Reading List Project) and highlighted the potential of renewed curricula for transforming higher education (Heleta, 2016; Le Grange, 2016; Luckett & Shay, 2017). Responses to this agenda have been multiple and diverse. Within the UK, there are examples of individual teachers taking action to interrogate their curricula alongside a growing collection of toolkits and checklists that provide practical guidance for staff to develop inclusive/ decolonized curricula (such as Decolonising SOAS Working Group, 2018; UCL, 2018).
While decolonizing work is taking place across universities on a global scale, the nature and extent of this work varies by discipline. The humanities and social sciences are most commonly associated with efforts to decolonize, with particular fields, such as Political Science (e.g. Mngomezulu & Hadebe, 2018) and Anthropology (Mogstad & Tse, 2018), at the forefront of this movement. In comparison, strategies in the natural sciences are more tentative. As spirited debates take place across disciplines (Last, 2019), this LRE special feature specifically explores the role played by our disciplines in shaping individual and collective responses to the decolonizing agenda.
Publication date: From May 2021 - January 2022.
Guest Editors
Karen Schucan Bird, UCL (University College London), UK.
Ludovic Coupaye, UCL (University College London), UK.
Article list
Research article
‘Decolonising the Medical Curriculum‘: Humanising medicine through epistemic pluralism, cultural safety and critical consciousness
Sarah H.M. Wong, Faye Gishen and Amali U. Lokugamage
2021-05-18 Volume 19 • Issue 1 • 2021
Also a part of:
Special feature: Decolonizing the Higher Education Curriculum
Decolonization in a higher education STEMM institution – is ‘epistemic fragility’ a barrier?
Mark Skopec, Molly Fyfe, Hamdi Issa, Kate Ippolito, Mark Anderson and Matthew Harris
2021-06-01 Volume 19 • Issue 1 • 2021
Also a part of:
Special feature: Decolonizing the Higher Education Curriculum
Diversity or decolonization? Searching for the tools to dismantle the ‘master’s house’
Muminah Arshad, Rachel Dada, Cathy Elliott, Iweta Kalinowska, Mehreen Khan, Robert Lipiński, Varun Vassanth, Jotepreet Bhandal, Monica de Quinto Schneider, Ines Georgis and Fiona Shilston
2021-06-08 Volume 19 • Issue 1 • 2021
Also a part of:
Special feature: Decolonizing the Higher Education Curriculum
Decolonize this art history: Imagining a decolonial art history programme at Kalamazoo College
Anne Marie Butler and Christine Hahn
2021-07-06 Volume 19 • Issue 1 • 2021
Also a part of:
Special feature: Decolonizing the Higher Education Curriculum
Decolonising the curriculum beyond the surge: Conceptualisation, positionality and conduct
Mai Abu Moghli and Laila Kadiwal
2021-07-13 Volume 19 • Issue 1 • 2021
Also a part of:
Special feature: Decolonizing the Higher Education Curriculum
Decolonising globalised curriculum landscapes: The identity and agency of academics
Vicente Reyes, Sharon Clancy, Henry Koge, Kevin Richardson and Phil Taylor
2021-08-17 Volume 19 • Issue 1 • 2021
Also a part of:
Special feature: Decolonizing the Higher Education Curriculum
The decolonial turn: reference lists in PhD theses as markers of theoretical shift/stasis in media and journalism studies at selected South African universities
Zvenyika Eckson Mugari
2021-09-07 Volume 19 • Issue 1 • 2021
Also a part of:
Special feature: Decolonizing the Higher Education Curriculum
Cross-disciplinary, collaborative and student-led: developing a change process for diversifying reading lists
Barbara Adewumi, Laura R. Bailey, Emma Mires-Richards, Kathleen M. Quinlan, Evangeline Agyeman, Aisha Alabi, Miriam Jeyasingh, Collins Konadu-Mensah, Wayne Lavinière, Patrice Mighton, Tore Shortridge, Dave S.P. Thomas and Nain Wassamba-Wabelua
2022-01-04 Volume 20 • Issue 1 • 2022
Also a part of:
Special feature: Decolonizing the Higher Education Curriculum